Air Quality & Mold
Air Quality in Your Home
With newer homes and homes that have been retrofit having tighter seals in what is called the "envelope", the amount of fresh air that gets to replace the existing air in a home is reduced more and more as we seal our homes to stop air loss and infiltration. While in theory this is considered a good thing to save money and energy for cooling and heating, we are in effect capturing the chemicals and used air in the home for a much longer period of time. Research in this area claims that in the peak summer cooling and winter heating seasons, the amount of "bad air"in the home doubles.
What does this mean for you? If you are in a home with new materials (construction or furniture) this means there are more airborne chemicals in the home that you will be breathing, including carbon dioxide that occupants have exhaled. Chemistry has provided us with an array of chemicals, glues, and materials that have made our life better. However, there are downsides when the chemicals and materials leave residue or produce toxins that we ingest or inhale. Keeping these toxins in a sealed home can create real physical symptoms in some people who may have a sensitivity or weakened immune system.
Below we take on the misconceptions in two of the more common conversational areas of today's home ownership - Airborne Contaminates and Mold. While mold can be considered an airborne contaminate as well, we take it on separately because it is 1) a big issue by itself, and 2) mold has the physical characteristic of being visible in almost every case.
Sometimes locating the mold is difficult, but finding the moisture problem is much easier with today's moisture meters and infrared sensing devices. So if your home or business has a moldy smell, MHBI can help locate the source, and put you on track to removing and eliminating the mold. Generally, fixing the water problem costs much less than the mold removal, because clean water leaves little if any residue when it evaporates.
Many unsuspecting homeowners are sold services that are not necessary since they are not experts in the area they are hiring a specialist to perform. This is extreme in the cases where the issue is something that cannot be seen or is considered a safety or health issue. We find this to be most prevalent with mold, air quality, and waterproofing contractors and specialists.
Please call MHBI if you have any questions or to schedule an inspection for mold or airborne contaminates.
We follow ONLY the US EPA guidelines and the NY State Health Department guidelines for Mold Inspection, Testing, Elimination, Protection, and Remediation. Other guidelines and standards posted on the Internet we do not consider to be acceptable for Human protection and safety, or cost effective.
Many unsuspecting homeowners are sold services that are not necessary since they are not experts in the area they are hiring a specialist to perform. This is extreme in the cases where the issue is something that cannot be seen or is considered a safety or health issue. We find this to be most prevalent with mold, air quality, and waterproofing contractors and specialists.
Please call MHBI if you have any questions or to schedule an inspection for mold or airborne contaminates.
We follow ONLY the US EPA guidelines and the NY State Health Department guidelines for Mold Inspection, Testing, Elimination, Protection, and Remediation. Other guidelines and standards posted on the Internet we do not consider to be acceptable for Human protection and safety, or cost effective.
Airborne ContaminatesAirborne contaminates are in our homes from a variety of common products. Many materials are treated with fire retardant or stain resistant chemicals. Other home construction materials are made of complex chemical compounds that produce "off-gasses" as they dry or age. Ever notice how fast the interior windows in your new car get a film on them. That is the off-gassing of the new plastics in the vehicle. We also use lots of chemicals in the home for cleaning. All of these with any noticeable fragrance leave airborne components in the air we breathe.
Evaluating Airborne Particles Using Comparative MethodsScientific research on airborne mold provides some interesting insights into which molds are considered more toxic, and the importance of performing an analysis of both indoor and outdoor levels of contaminants at the local neighborhood level, as there are large variations by seasons and by regions of the country.
More detailed information can be found from the paper Correcting Mold Misinformation, by Ronald E. Gots, MD, PhD, of the International Center for Toxicology and Medicine at Harvard University, by clicking here. More on MisinformationOne can look far and wide on the Internet and find a wide array of statements and claims by individuals and companies (who are in business to make money from removal and remediation) that are profoundly wrong. To read a questionable media article that does not include any information from an objective third party expert in the field, click here. Note, since its initial posting, all comments have been removed from the article, including our comment of disagreement.
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Mold is Our FriendWhile mold in a home is not a friend to us, molds provide some very useful purposes in nature and, like bees who can sting us and potentially be fatal to some but are key to food production, molds break down non-living materials into more basic elemental forms that live plants can use for food.
Why Mold is NOT the Primary ProblemNever thought you would hear that, but mold is everywhere around us. That is why when you add moisture to a natural occurring material that is no longer alive and keep it warm, without any help it will start to grow mold. Mold spores are all around us floating through the air. The wind helps blow them everywhere. It's just when they land and find a home on a warm, moist, non-living natural occurring material where the spores can begin to grow, develop, devour the material, embed their tendrils into the material, and produce more spores - that mold becomes a problem.
The growth of mold from a floating spore into "live" mold can happen as soon as 48 hours after the spore finds a warm moist material ready for destruction. So while we are constantly breathing in mold spores that are floating through the air, generally their volume is low and our bodies can reject them as foreign bodies. The problem comes in when our body is overwhelmed with the volume of particles from a mold infestation - not so much from the mold spores as from mold particles and the toxins molds produce (which is usually called the "moldy smell"). If your home already has a mold problem, or has one of the infamous moldy smells, then most likely, there already is a source of moisture, mold. and absorbent material that mold likes. The immediate answer is to stop the water or moisture intrusion. When you stop the moisture problem, you stop the mold growth. Only then can you work to find and eliminate the existing mold. Water & Moisture are Always the ProblemSo when a part of your home floods, getting it cleared of water and dried out as soon as possible (within 24 hours), is the key to keeping mold from starting to grow and producing a multitude of new spores which can become airborne throughout the home. That is where the problem comes from - long-term moisture retention or water flow.
Repeating...If your home already has a mold problem, or has one of the infamous moldy smells, then most likely, there already is a source of moisture, mold. and absorbent material that mold likes. The immediate answer is to stop the water or moisture intrusion. When you stop the moisture problem, you stop the mold growth. Only then can you work to find and eliminate the existing mold. |
Links
■ www.EPA.gov/mold
■ EPA Homeowner Mold Info & Cleanup Guide (PDF)
■ NY State guidelines for remediation: www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/epi/epi-mold-guidelines.pdf
■ American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology www.aaaai.org
■ EPA Homeowner Mold Info & Cleanup Guide (PDF)
■ NY State guidelines for remediation: www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/epi/epi-mold-guidelines.pdf
■ American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology www.aaaai.org